Says a third: ``We`ll give you the recipe for the honey dipped wings instead, they`re real good too.``

This is a scene at Try-Me`s, a most unusual restaurant started last November by students taking food classes at Lawrence Hall in Chicago. It`s a very elite, intimate spot. There`s one round table that seats about 8 or 10 people and the customers are school staff members. Charge cards aren`t accepted, but a signature on the bill will suffice until the end of the week. Those not settling their bills by Friday, however, will be hounded.

Lawrence Hall Youth Services is a residential and day treatment facility for children and adolescents, most of whom are wards of the state and have been referred to Lawrence by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The main campus on N. Francisco includes the special education elementary and high school and six residential homes; nine other group homes are at scattered sites throughout the city.

Try-Me`s is in the school, open for breakfast and lunch.

It`s an offshoot of the food class. Before the little restaurant was established, the students would be cooking, as they do in any home economics food course, and teachers would drop in, ask if there was anything to sample. ``They were always saying, `Have you got anything for me to try?` `` said one of the students. ``We started saying, `We`re not a bunch of try me`s.` `` But then the idea evolved of doing a restaurant for real. The foods class was already preparing special faculty meals, school board meals and others, as well as handing out all those free samples. So they decided to try to use their skills for actually setting up a restaurant and charging for it.

``So we wrote a proposal, listed all the equipment we`d need, what we wanted to do,`` said student Scott, manager of the restaurant. (Because this is a special education facility, the last names of students are not released.) Food services instructor Devora Freeman was all for it, as was Victoria Williams, coordinating teacher for Lawrence`s high school.

The proposal was approved by the Lawrence board and the restaurant opened in late November. Tyrone, who with Scott and Tanya were the core group behind the restaurant, thought of the name: Try-Me`s. It was a natural, following all the is-there-anything-for-me-to-try requests from the teachers.

The menus are printed on bright yellow cardboard posters and a blackboard on the wall. Breakfast choices include such dishes as Egg Mc-Try-Me`s (sausage and scrambled eggs on an English muffin, bagel or croissant), French toast, fresh fruit and cereals. Lunch features a salad and soup bar, with the soup changing daily. There also are daily specials, such as Italian beef sandwiches (juicy or not, depending on request), fried shrimp, and those buffalo wings.

Prices are a bargain: ``Breakfast for a Buck,`` the poster says, and soup and salad bar at lunch is only $2. The emphasis is on healthful eating. Several of the daily specials are stir fried, and no soda pop is sold. Liquid refreshments instead include several bottled waters and juices.

Shifts of students change several times during the day, with the first shift arriving at 7 a.m. About 20 students, ages 15 to 17, participate. They serve between 100 and 150 meals a week.

They are learning handle money, plan menus, order the food, balance the books and, of course, to cook. So far, Try-Me`s is just about breaking even moneywise.

But one of the biggest things the students are learning, they say, is about people-and accommodating them.

``But they`re not,`` said Scott. ``Sometimes when they don`t get (their order placed right away) they`re not real nice.``

Learning that the customer is always right (even when he`s wrong) and how to get along with people has been a big plus. Another big plus is the self respect that comes with knowing that people are willing to pay for their services-that the table they set and the food they cook has value. And these are skills that can translate into jobs outside of school. Several are now working in fast food places, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald`s.

They`re in cramped quarters, and they don`t have all the equipment they need. Their wish list to make Try-Me`s even better includes such items as fry pans; aprons; a commercial toaster-oven (they have a small, home model); hot lamp; electric can opener; cash register; table top commerical mixer. Plus a couple of big items, such as a microwave and dishwasher.